Friday, April 20, 2012

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so what is this photo saying? Well, what does it say about me? I love sharing poetry with an audience because I feel fully alive when I'm performing poetry. And the Monroe Community College is a fabulous place to entertain kids and adults with poems that you created.The book in my hands is WAITING TO SEE THE PRINCIPAL AND OTHER POEMS. You can go to Amazon.com and find some wonderful book reviews there. I am proud of the text and the illustrations. Lori Aman created the illustrations. She is a talented oil painter and cartoonist.

For a number of years we both taught in the same school in Rochester, NY, the Walt Disney Elementary School. We both loved kids and teaching. Okay, you can't see "all of that" in this photo, but my eyes and lips are smiling. Can you see that?Everyone seems to be paying attention. Can you see that? To catch everyone paying attention on film is one of the biggest challenges, especially when you entertain kids, for a photographer to capture. You hardly ever get that, even if you crop the photo. Usually you see a crowd of faces bursting with mile long smiles, and off in the corner someone is intently watching an ant crawl on the floor. Therefore, it's flattering to see all the heads leaning toward the speaker, Yours Truly, and one female face is actually smiling in the left-hand corner. I actually like to believe the faces you can't see are smiling too. I tend to be an optimist.

We don't have a thousand words here, but at least you know why I like this photo so much. To me, it's priceless.